The Grandma Diaries - Part One. France.

With my dear grandma and my aunty Cindy we began our journey in Paris.
To get there, we took the eurostar. Cindy and Jude were both a bit nervous about the tunnel but in the end were entirely unaware of going through it.
We'd passed under the Channel while I was getting coffees from the cafe carriage and half an hour later Judy commented that surely the tunnel would be coming up soon...
I pointed out that the signs in French outside the train were a bit of a giveaway.

Paris was beautiful and grand.
The Louvre was everything I'd hoped for, and more.
We got to see the Rodin museum - he's my favourite sculptor, mostly due to a book I read in my teens that was about his life.
We were in Paris for May Day - wall to wall people everywhere except on the roped off grassy areas of the parks.
The crowds made me anxious but when we left Paris the next day I tried to take only good memories.

We headed to Orleans and picked up a car.
There I drove us to the Loire valley where we visited numerous chateaux, saw horses dance, saw the world's most beautiful vege garden, ate too much good cheese and drank too much good wine.

From the Loire we went south to the Dordogne, by far the most beautiful part of France that I've visited.
There were forests everywhere, even some almost-mountains.
The troglodyte villages, the Lascaux caves (even if they are just copies) and the Grande Grotte were the highlights.

Then we headed south to the Basque country to stay with the Rivats in their beautiful Chambre D'Hote on the edge of the Pyrenees.
Cindy's fire for the Camino was stoked. We walked through St Jean Pied de Port and she was inspired by the Santiago de Compostella pilgrimmage all over again.
Again, we ate too much cheese and drank too much wine.
We saw Nina and Bertille and met Bertille's lovely babies.
We were well feted, especially Jude.

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